Simple Beef Bone Broth Recipe

Here’s my simple take on one of my favorite superfoods, bone broth. It’s made from beef bones and jam-packed with many nutrients that help improve digestive and joint health.

There are many ways to include bone broth into your diet, but I prefer to drink it straight out of mug, piping hot, seasoned with an ample amount of unrefined sea salt. You could also use it as a soup base, or add it to any recipe that needs a little extra flavor or moisture.

Tips for making the bone broth

To get the nutritional benefits of bone broth, you need to make sure the bones come from a healthy animal which is fed with species-specific food, which for cows means grass-fed. I strongly recommend you only get beef bones from grass-fed cattle. Just ask your local butcher, and make sure you get a mix of beef bones to add some variety (short ribs, oxtails, knuckles, and neck bones).

As mentioned in this popular recipe, bone broth has many health benefits. It’s great for your digestive health, skin health, and joints. It’s something you can make in a big batch once a week, store it, and have enough to drink on a daily basis. I also prefer to freeze my bone broth in large portions (yogurt containers are great!). But if you’re short on time, or just feeling lazy, you can also buy bone broth online made with grass-fed & organic ingredients. Luckily there exist nowadays some great alternatives!

One note is that some people find bone broth to taste a little bland, so I personally like to add some apple cider vinegar which helps make the flavor more deep. Plus, it helps release the gelatin and extract the minerals from the bones.

Basically, this is a super simple recipe to make. So let’s get started.

Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C). While you’re waiting for the oven to warm up, put the mixed beef bones in single layer on a baking tray. I personally like to drizzle some olive oil onto it but you don’t have to!

When the oven is ready, place the tray in and let roast for 30 minutes on one side. Once that’s done, turn the bones over and roast for another 30 minutes.

While the bones are roasting, chop 2 yellow onions and 3 celery stalks. I often add 2 medium carrots, too, or then some lovage (Levisticum officinale) as I have a huge bush growing on my vegetable patch and it’s a very tasty and healthy herb.

Once the bones are nice and roasted, combine them with the other ingredients in a slow cooker. Make sure you cover all the ingredients with water. This is optional but I like to add about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and I actually strongly recommend it, as it makes the bone broth even healthier.

Turn your slow cooker to a high setting until the water comes to a simmer. Once that happens, reduce the heat to low. Cover, and let the broth simmer for 12–24 hours. The longer you simmer the broth, the better! I like to aim for around 20 hours. I used to make my bone broth on stove top, but cooking it for that long time was quite painful (I had to observe it all the time) and just think about the energy wasted! That’s why a slow cooker is a must for making bone broth. And, if you don’t have time to make your own, you can simply buy high-quality bone broth online.

After waiting for 12–24 hours, strain your broth into a different container to remove all the bones and vegetables. I like to use mason jars (and those yogurt containers! Though glass is highly recommended, as plastic can always have some residue and release nasty stuff to the broth). Once the broth is cooled to room temperature, put it in the fridge to chill. Scrape off any fat that solidifies after you cool it. It’s good and tasty fat so use it!

All you have to do now is reheat the broth whenever you want some bone broth! Sip on it while it’s hot in a mug, or use it as an ingredient in your favorite recipes. Remember to add unrefined sea salt to taste.

And, below is the recipe for this bone broth. (I don’t include nutrient info here as it’s a bit difficult to calculate. However, in general there are practically no carbs in bone broth, just some 1 gram net carbs per serving according to several sources.)

My beef bone broth and soup experiments

I decided to experiment with beef bone broth after reading an article about a bone broth detox. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but the article inspired me to incorporate bone broth into my regular diet, though I have enjoyed bone broth occasionally before, especially broth made from chicken bones.

Nowadays I usually cook up a huge pot of bone broth every weekend, and refrigerate it so I can drink it throughout the week. But occasionally I tend to run out, so then I supplement my bone broth diet with some pre-made broth. And did I ever tell you that I recently started nutritionist studies? Yep, the courses are held every weekend in another town, so cooking bone broth is out of question for me now.

That’s why one of my new favorite pantry items is the beef bone broth made by Kettle & Fire. To my understanding they’re the only shelf-stable, and non-frozen bone broth available. I also love that they use high-quality ingredients which means their broth is super gelatinous and full of nutrients. It’s great to take with you also when traveling!

Highly recommend you check them out, just use the code “LOWCARB15” to get 15% off your first order! Hope you like the product as much as I do.

Tips for variation

People normally find bone broth bland, so to add some variety, try adding some cayenne pepper which gives it a little kick, plus it also helps boost your metabolism. Make sure you also check out my other recipe where I use the broth for a delicious soup. You can also use it as a base for other dishes like for gravy, stew, sauce, marinade, and much more.

Like said, different herbs give some variation to the broth. My favorite is fresh lovage, though I occasionally season my broth with thyme or oregano. By the way, thyme is great especially with chicken broth. Also garlic gives delicious, intense flavor to the broth.

Oh yes, and don’t hesitate to add a pinch of turmeric, it’s super healthy and gives a pleasant color!

All good bone broth recipes insist you add vinegar (or citrus juice) to extract all the nutrients from the bones. Vegetables will lose all nutrition if put into the crockpot TOO early. Better to wait until the last few hours for that! Also, if your bone broth has gelified after cooling, congratulations! That is a true sign you have extracted all the goodness from the bones. Don’t worry if not, because your bone broth is still SUPER nutritious. The above is a very good bone broth otherwise! Drink up!

Pls do add the vinegar, it leaches minerals out of the bones! You won’t taste such a small amount.
I add dulse and/or kelp to it when i drink it, good way to get those down.
When you add turmeric to your cup, use black pepper too and make sure theres some fat or add some butter or coconut oil. Both increase absorption of the turmeric.
Cooking any grain in broth is good too but on lowcarb, grains are rare. I drink more broth than cook with it, unless Im making soup — and then, man! is soup quick n easy once the base is made…the broth!

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